'Cuse Takes Game 1 vs. Virginia As Seasons End Nears

Story and Photo by Michael Castellano

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The weather may have been cold, but the Syracuse bats were hot as the Orange took game 1 of its last home stand with a 7-4 victory over Virginia on a brisk Saturday afternoon at Skytop Softball Stadium.

The Orange (16-38) put up a seven spot on the scoreboard in the third inning against Cavaliers (18-26) starter Aimee Chapdelaine who went just two and two thirds innings and suffered the loss for Virginia.

Syracuse fell behind in the top of the third. After allowing two walks to start the inning Orange starter Jocelyn Cater threw a fastball to Kaitlin Fitzgerald who ripped it into left field for an RBI single.

But the Syracuse bats woke up in the bottom of the inning. 

It looked like another 1-2-3 inning for Chapdelaine as she retired the first two Orange batters in order, but after a two-out walk to Corinne Ozanne, Sydney O'Hara lifted a 2-run homer to right center to tie the game at two. Then with Julie Wambold on first and Danielle Chitkowski on second Rachel Burkhardt brought both home with a double to left center. Maddi Doane finished off the big inning for 'Cuse with a 2-RBI double of her own to left center to score Mary Dombrowski and Annie Toczynski. 

Cater gave up two more runs in the top of the seventh, but was brilliant in between working out of a first and second one-out jam in the fifth. She picked up the win to move to 13-17 on the season. 

"I just tried to keep focusing on the next pitch," Cater Said. "I just kind of told myself keep working on that next pitch."

Freshman Maddi Doane finished the game 1-3 with 3 RBIs. 

Cater added 12 more K's to bring her strikeout total up to 233 on the year.

 "Jocelyn threw awesome today," head coach Leigh Ross said. "She really dug deep, threw a lot of innings for us, and we got the hits we needed."

Next

The Orange also beat the Cavs in the second game of the doubleheader. (See separate story by Julia Morris.) SU wraps up the 2015 season with game 3 of the series Sunday afternoon. It will be the last game for seniors Mary Dombrowski, Lindsay Taylor, and Julie Wambold. First pitch is set for 12:00 p.m.